MA

Have you ever seen an interesting building and wondered if it was old, new, or somewhere in between? If so, there’s a good chance you were looking at one of Morris Adjmi‘s creations. This is the brilliance of the architect–his buildings focus on the fundamentals of design, blending in with their historic surroundings, but still showcasing subtle, modern touches that make them unique.

While Adjmi’s contemporaries seem to be in a race to build the tallest, glassiest building in town, he has become the go-to architect for downtown developers thanks to his utilitarian- and industrial-influenced designs. After opening his own firm MA in 1997, Adjmi gained permanent notoriety with the Scholastic Building in SoHo, a 2001 project he collaborated on with Pritzker Prize winner Aldo Rossi. It was the first example of new construction in the SoHo Cast-Iron Historic District, and architecture Paul Goldberger said it was “a building that will teach generations of architects the proper way to respond to historic contexts.”